INTRODUCTION. 3 



pecuniary interest in the trade, I may say that such mat- 

 ters should not be allowed to decide between one farrier 

 and another. A bad workman may do an injury at one 

 shoeing which will cost the owner of the horse more 

 than would pay ten times over the difference between 

 his charges and the higher prices of a better man. 



Many years ago I knew a firm who changed their 

 farrier and system of shoeing for a cheaper plan. The 

 cost for shoeing alone was decreased by $375 in the year, 

 but the cost of horse-flesh rose in that year more than 

 6500. The old saw — " that for w^ant of a nail the shoe 

 was lost, for want of a shoe the hor.se vv'-as lost, and for 

 want of a horse the man was lost," has been illustrated 

 times without number. Few persons, however, are 

 iiware of the terrible consequences which have more than 

 once attended neglect in the shoeing of horses. iSTapo- 

 leoji's retreat from Moscow depended for most of its 

 hardships and horrors upon the simple fact that his 

 lior^s were not shod properly for travelling on snow and 

 ioe. The horses could not keep their feet, and were 

 unable to drag the guns and v/agous, which had to be 

 abandoned. Daring the Fra-ncoPrussian war, Bour- 

 baki'g retrea.t became a confused rout from a similar 

 cause. In civil life no winter passes without injury and 

 death to hundreds of horses from the same neglect. 

 These are instances that anyone can see; but heavy 

 losses due to bad shoeing are constant from other and less 

 evident evils — from the adoption of wrong methods and 

 the practice of erroneous theorit-s. 



The farrier has not Ixvan fairly treated by the public. 

 His practical knowledge has been ignored, he has been 

 instructed by amateurs in all sorts of theories, and 

 coerced into carrying out practices for ilie untoward 

 resrJts of which he has been blamed. The natural conse- 

 quence of all this has been that the art of farriery 

 degenerated, and tlie farrier was forced into a position 

 d^istractive to the self-respect of any craftsman. In no 

 other trade do persons entirely ignorant of the business 

 presume to direct and dictate as to how the work should 

 b)e done. No one presumes to instruct the watch-maker 



